One busy period of our lives ended yesterday with Kerry, Sunny and Jamie moving out and into their own new home. We wish them the very best and we're grateful to have had those four months together, growing closer.
We're preparing for another year of healthy chooks and the eggs they'll produce as well as an abundance of home grown vegetables and fruit.
Now we're getting ready for another busy time - we're collecting six new chickens to add to our flock next week and we're planning our vegetables garden. We should start planting mid-March. Like all good gardens, there'll be a period of soil preparation and systems checking before we start. All gardens need that because gardening is always more than putting a plant or seed in the ground and standing back. We're both looking forward to being more active in the garden after a long hot summer. I'll make sure I take plenty of photos so you can follow our progress.
I'm looking forward to Skyping with my blogging group tomorrow. Ten people from all around the world, all chatting and sharing. I'm still amazed that we can do that face to face while we're so far from each other. What are you doing?
~.~.~ 🦋🐔🐝 ~.~.~
Grow your own and forage: eat better without costing the earth
The Pineapple Project - My friend Andrew Davies from the ABC sent me this link. I think you'll like it. The Pineapple Project a podcast by Claire Hooper who is on a mission to help us better understand and handle money. Have a look at a couple of them and tell me what you think.
Arctic warming: scientists alarmed by 'crazy' temperature rises
All parents with young kids should know about these 23 hacks
DIY hanging rain gutter garden
With your own healthy choices, this makes packing school and work lunches easier
Non-sandwich school lunch ideas
A beginner's guide to whittling
Pegs/clothespins and hangers up-cycled and repurposed - I particularly like the peg animals
11 years living off-grid
This simple trick makes it quicker and easier to iron clothes
With your own healthy choices, this makes packing school and work lunches easier
Non-sandwich school lunch ideas
A beginner's guide to whittling
Pegs/clothespins and hangers up-cycled and repurposed - I particularly like the peg animals
11 years living off-grid
It must be quiet at your place, Rhonda.Tomorrow we have Jane Milburn speaking at our simple living group. She is the author of 'Slow Clothing: Finding meaning in what we wear'. It should be a great workshop. Enjoy your weekend.
ReplyDeleteInteresting links, as always. Enjoy your new chickens! I'm trying to convince my husband that we need to start raising our next lot of chicks, as our current hens are 2 years old, but he thinks we should take a break from chicken-keeping for a while. We'll see....
ReplyDeleteI have ordered some seeds, but it still seems very hot up here in the tropical north to even think about gardening. Your family moves out and you move in more chickens!
ReplyDeleteGosh - it is going to feel different at your house now. The pineapple project looks really interesting....some listening for this evening me thinks.
ReplyDeleteRhonda what do you do with your older chickens? I let mine live on even though they don't lay any more. They drop off the perch at a time of their choosing. I have one old lady that is a Cochin cross that I think is around 6-7 years old. She lays an egg once a year but still goes broody on a regular basis but is clumsy and ends up breaking the eggs in her clutch. She is a good mum if she manages to hatch a chick.
ReplyDeleteClaire in Melbourne
We don't do anything with the old girls, they go into swan stage and just sash-shay around the yard. Most of them are still laying and they'll live on for a few years yet. Like yours, they'll just drop dead one day. These new girls are still 6 weeks off laying so they'll have time to settle in.
DeleteI spent time last weekend, in the rain, getting our main veggie patch ready. All the prep I did is not resting under a layer of pea straw ready for planting in a couple of weeks. I love thinking about what I'll grow in the Autumn; usually a much easier season to grow things than in Summer. This weekend, I plan on sewing a new top I want to make, the pattern was free in a lovely craft magazine I bought a while ago. It looks easy (though there's every chance I'll have to unpick a seam or two!). Thanks for great links, as always I look forward to exploring a few of them. Have a lovely, if a little quieter, weekend! Meg:)
ReplyDeleteYou will miss your boarders, Rhonda, especially Jamie. Our home always feels so empty after our families return home.
ReplyDeleteI am madly knitting a pair of socks for a friend's birthday. Otherwise nothing special planned for the weekend! Enjoy yours.
Hello Rhonda! I ama from Brazil! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeletethat lettuce is beautiful....can you share the type...I've only planted leaf and rommaine. Jan
ReplyDeleteIt's Salad Bowl lettuce, Jan. Good to grow in a hot climate, but will grow in cold as well. Many of the butter lettuces grow like this - no tight head and you can keep picking the leaves while they grow instead of picking the entire lettuce.
DeleteI so love the Weekend Reading each Friday! I spent last Friday evening watching several of the "Hands" series on YouTube after you introduced me to them. This week, I was particularly intrigued by the parenting hacks; I can't believe I have had children for almost 18 years and never knew about/used any of them! Particularly the "gadgets" board, and duct-taping bubble solution to a post/pole. Sheer genius.
ReplyDeleteKristin
Such a good idea to share free food when there is a lot of produce in the garden - my colleagues at work do that - we all take in surplus and share - the only thing that doesn't go is cooking apples as we all have these trees.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the list of links. The first two were most interesting for me personally. I've added the podcast to my favourites on my iPad and will listen with the hope of making some financial changes in my life to help with my future. Thanks again. Anne, Brisbane
ReplyDeleteI have wanted chickens for ages but unfortunately it looks like we can't have them, we live in government housing and have a large veggie garden but after enquiring was told it was very unlikely that we would be allowed to have chickens :( I have spent the past week bottling tomatoes, capsicum and jalapenos, making sauce, relish and pickles and harvesting and storing almonds, apples and pears. The coming week will be doing more of the same....I do love having my store cupboard/freezer full of home made goodies :) Thank you for the great reading material, I hope you have a lovely weekend and don't miss your family too much. Take care. x
ReplyDeleteLove your weekend reads it is one of the highlights of my week thanks rhonda
ReplyDeleteLots of interesting links as always, thanks Rhonda. I love this time of year when it starts to cool down and you can think about a winter garden.
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful lettuce!!
ReplyDeleteYour house will seem very quiet for a while with everyone gone. It’s good that Jamie and his parents live so close by. You have been lucky to have them staying with you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the lovely web sights to read. Have a restful weekend.
Gosh Rhonda, your garden is looking wonderful. I hope we get to see some photos of the new chooks eventually! Wishing you and Hanno a great weekend. Warmest regards, Wendy
ReplyDeleteThe picture of your garden is amazing. Seriously. I have always toyed with the idea of growing my own food, but as I struggle with a houseplant, I've always given up before properly starting. Your blog is so inspirting.
ReplyDeleteThanks Amy. You know we didn't start out knowing how to grow fruit and vegetables. It's one of the many skills we learned along to way. You can do it to, it just takes time, effort and the will to do it. xx
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